After the Arab Spring: power shift in the Middle East?: Libya: defining its future

Alaaldin, Ranj
(2012)
After the Arab Spring: power shift in the Middle East?: Libya: defining its future.
IDEAS reports - special reports,
Kitchen, Nicholas (ed.)
SR011.
LSE IDEAS, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

Abstract

The international community is approaching the anniversary of its intervention in Libya last
year. What started as a protest for greater rights and democracy quickly transformed into
a military uprising against a vicious dictator intent on suppressing a revolution with every
brutal means at his disposal. The conflict was distinct from other uprisings elsewhere in the
region for three principal reasons: first, the brutality with which Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s
regime responded; second, the audacity, tenacity and speed with which the Libyan people
became militarily organised and capable of exploiting Gaddafi’s disintegrating military; and
third, the involvement of the international community, in the form of the NATO alliance that
was backed up by Arab support, particularly from the Gulf state of Qatar.